The present invention relates to a printer, and more specifically, to apparatus and methods for invalidating a document of value.
Printers, for example, thermal transfer printers, are used for printing various documents with high resolution and full colors (e.g., 8 bits for each of CMYK). The printing quality of the printers has been improved to the extent that documents printed by these printers are used as documents of value, e.g., original tickets, gift certificates, postage stamps, and the like. At the same time, prices for these high-quality printers have been substantially reduced.
In a situation where a user prints out an original valuable document based on printing data retrieved from a remote host (e.g., a content provider's server), the current network/printing systems are not capable of dealing with the user's cancellation request. Once the original document is issued by the printer, the conventional systems have no remedies for cancellation of the issued document. In other words, the user is not able to make refund transactions for cancellation of the issuance of the document.
In view of these and other issues, it would be desirable to have a technique allowing a printer to invalidate the issued document and perform transactions for cancellation with the server.